Here's the fifth pin-up in a new series I'm doing called The Women of the New 52. This one is of the dangerous Poison Ivy!

When Poison Ivy was announced to be part of DC Comics' Birds of Prey, there was a collective groan from many fans. "Isn't Poison Ivy a super-villain? Why is she hanging out with Black Canary?" For me, I saw her place on the team as being loaded with potential. Why is Ivy on the team? Is she good? Is she bad? Of course, Duane Swierczynski has done wonders with Ivy and the rest of the Birds. She doesn't feel forced into the book and it's evident that she's not exactly welcome on the team (especially when it comes to Starling who calls her the Crazy Salad Lady). It's also glorious to see that Swierczynski is returning Ivy to her roots as an environmentalist whose motivation is to save the Earth's wildlife and to punish those who abuse the Earth's resources. I'm super pumped for the next arc which will place Ivy centre stage.

When Ivy was redesigned for the New 52 line of books, she received a drastic change in physical appearance. She's Caucasian once more but is sporting facial tattoos and super cool black eyes with green irises. She wears an organic suit which she can use to create vines and other plant life. It makes her ten times more powerful than she's ever been. As with most designs from the relaunch, it took me a while to adjust to Ivy's new look but I love it now. I also find it ironic that Poison Ivy, the Gotham Girl who's always had the most reason to dress provocatively, is dressed conservatively while her former Gotham City Sirens co-stars are being slutted up. I mean really... Catwoman can't seem to leave her costume zipped up and Harley Quinn may as well changed her name to Whoreley Quinn in that get-up she calls a costume. Poor Harley. I don't even know how Harley kicks butt without having a wardrobe malfunction in that thing... But I digress...

I don't know... I like the redesign and I like Poison Ivy as a character but I really dislike the double standard thing going on. I mean, she's basically a date rapist, since it's been said that she slept with some of her drugged victims before torturing/killing them. If that was a guy who did that as part of his MO there'd be an uproar but for Poison Ivy there has never been one at my knowledge . That said, both DC and Marvel (Carol Danveeeers !) are notoriously bad at handling this particular issue, so ... yeah.

Poison Ivy is identified as a villain though and her actions are not portrayed as being acceptable. Although, I can't say I've ever come across an issue where it explicitly states she has sex with her drugged victims. Most modern interpretations of the character have begun to interpret her through a queer lens. In other words, her preference is implied to be with women (notably, Harley Quinn) while her interactions with men are merely parts of her scheme. She shares that similarity with Mystique, as Mystique's only real loving relationship has been with a woman while she uses men as tools in her schemes.

There have been further instances of rape, where women have drugged men and slept with them in comics. Tarantula raped Nightwing, while Talia raped Batman. In both instances, there was a backlash amongst readers. The second example in particular created a major stir and many fans took issue with this narrative, especially since it changed the nature of the characters' relationship and completely harpooned Talia's character. I actually explored this particular instance in a blog entry titled "Top 10: Comic Book Characters Ruined by A-List Writers." If you're interested, you can find the link here: divas-femmes-fatales.blogspot.… . It can't really be a double-standard when there is documentation of there being an uproar over women raping men in comics.

No I disagree I wanted her to be a nudist with the green skin again or white skin. Hey it makes sense for this particular character since she is all about natural nature and even seduction so if their was unnecessary cover up its defiantly poison ivy. Harley Quinn I can agree with you defiantly since she is very iconic with the other look and cat woman has been zippered up before it just depends on who is the artist and how he or she draws her. But I respect your opinion.

She is actually naked. All her "clothes" are actually plants protecting her body and she can create plants from all her body and she doesnt depends on outside plants while in buildings or urban places, where BOP takes down. Plus when she use her spores to seduce people, she deplays with sexy poses and seduce her victims with her spores, which makes hipnotic illusions of almost paradises florests.

I love the new look! I'm glad she's Caucasian again. I wasn't a fan of green skin. I'm not saying I hated it, just preferred the normal skin color. I dint like the new hair but your piece made me change my mind. I have given her the old hairstyle in the pic I'm drawing but now I'm gonna redraw it.

Good job on the suit. I like that you drew the vines coming out of it. It shows her new capabilities. I like her black and green eyes. She looks confident and dangerous. Her hair looks very nice. I like the way you draw hands. They look slender and feminine. It takes me a while to draw hands and when I do they look nowhere as good as this. Keep up the good work! I agree with you about the irony. They covered her up while Harley looks like she joined the HellFire Club.

I really love Ivy with green skin because it makes so much sense for her character. On top of that, it helps to add diversity to DC Comics. It's bad enough that it's like white people palooza over at DC Comics and the Batman Rogues are even worse. The vast majority of his villains are Caucasian so making Ivy green helped to really diversify his cast. On top of that, it helped to distinguish her further. There are so many Caucasian redheads in comics (Barbara Gordon, Poison Ivy, Caitlin Fairchild, Jean Grey, Theresa Rourke, Black Widow, Firestar, Hawkwoman, Cyclone, etc.) that it makes it so that unless they're drawn in-costume it's impossible to tell them apart. Of course, we do know that Ivy is still green in the DCnU (it's shown in Batman: The Dark Knight) and it is merely that Ivy is able to shift her skintone into whatever she chooses. Of course, I'd hardly say she's fully "Caucasian" in BoP since she looks like her skintone is much paler. It's very vampiric.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments. I'm glad I could change your mind on her hair (especially since her previous hairstyle was SUPER generic and now she actually has one unique to her) and also thanks for the compliments on the hands. They're such a hard thing to draw and I have a lot of difficulty with drawing them so it means a lot that you like the way I draw them.

I'd have to go back and check the last issue of BoP to really see what I thought about the art but I don't remember being overly offended by the change in art. Still... not entirely sure why this is relevant to my art. XD Haha.

That's been more or less my reaction to nearly every DCnU costume. I start off going "meh" then after seeing them in multiple issues I end up loving them. XD Plus, the whole look goes well with the tone of the Birds title.

Ivy! Im in freaking love with this piece. I think Ivy has just passed Mera as my favorite in this series. Im just in awe of how great this piece is. Ive seen a few different pictures of Ivy from the pages of Birds of Prey and I have to say I wasnt thrilled with it, BUT this piece has totally changed my mind.

Ill start off by saying that Im loving that Ivy can creat vines from her suit now. That is freaking awesome! You did an awesome job on drawing the vines and making them look very realistic. The moss(I assume its moss) on her suit looks very nice as well. It really brings alot of color to the suit and makes it really pop. Her hair looks very full and lusious, very suited for Ivy. I really love the facial tattoos. I think it brings a certain something to her design and makes it stand out more then just a plain dark suit with some moss on it.

I have to say I havent been exposed to Ivy that much. Of course I read most of Gotham City Sirens, only missing a handful of the later issues before the relaunch. I really liked Ivy in GCS and enjoyed her friendship with Harley. It was really funny to watch them together. Harley was such a child sometimes and I think that Ivy was able to counter balance that. Ivy doesnt seem like the normal villian to me. She just wants to save the planet and our natural resources and she'll do whatever it takes to do that. I think that if people didnt do so much to hurt the enviornment Ivy wouldnt feel the need to punish them. To me that doesnt make her as bad as a villian as say the Joker or Bane. Thats another reason I liked GCS, it seemed that Selina was starting to rub off on Harley and Pamela. Im happy to see that they are continuing to take Ivy down the hero path. Im really starting to look forward to reading your issues of Birds of Prey.

Ivy seems like a very interesting character that I would really like to learn more about. Maybe if her and Harley were closer in the New 52 Whoreley wouldnt exsist XD Overall I really love this piece and think that it is the best in the series. I just really love looking at it and seeing the whole thing come together. I just cant say enough about how great this piece is. Im sorry im rambling now XD Anyways, yet another great piece youve got her and I look forward to the next one.

Yay! I'm so glad you love this piece! I'm surprised that it's surpassed Mera in terms of your favourites for this series. I've still got a few ladies left to do so we'll see if those favourites shift again. Canary's coming up so I think I may have to pull out the big guns to make her look that much cooler.

As with most of the costumes from the relaunch, I didn't much like Ivy's look but it grew on me. I'm happy if my art has enabled you to appreciate the new look a little more. The addition of the vines were a must-have for this drawing and I wanted to show-off Ivy's new capabilities here. Of course, something I like about this look is it gives Ivy's a definite style particularly when it comes to her hair (which you pointed out). Pre-Flashpoint Ivy's hair was just kind of... there. But now she has these cascading, rippling waves and a centre-part. In terms of the green portions of her costume... I don't know what it is. XD I've always assume they were leaves but it could be moss. The way I've drawn it it looks a little mossy.

I think a lot of people misunderstand Poison Ivy. While Ivy is an eco-terrorist... she does so out of her own feeling of it being a necessity. She is literally linked into the planet and so she understands what human pollution is doing to it. She's not wrong in her beliefs but she's mistaken in her actions. She's an extremist. Still, people treat her equally as a super-villain to the likes of the Joker or any number of (male) Bat-villains. I still think she's a villain but not on the same level as many of Batman's other rogues. Of course, it still bugs me when people call Catwoman a villain. It just doesn't suit her or show any comprehension for the character. Harley, on the other hand, is and will probably always be a villain of some kind. She has dependency issues that force her to latch onto bad influences -- the Joker, Poison Ivy, Catwoman. She goes from criminal to criminal looking to attach herself to someone. It doesn't help that she's a psychotic. XD

Anyway, thanks for the wonderful comment! You have no need to worry about rambling... if every comment you write for the month of June ends up like this you'll end up the winner of this month's contest.

Yes, you do have a few more to go and I look forward to seeing if any of them do pass Ivy as my favorite of this series.

Yeah, I really do like this costume now. Its really grown on me just from looking at your piece and different pictures of Ivy from Birds of Prey. I really like Ivy's new hair and how theyve managed to highlight it and make it a part of her now. I just assumed it was moss from the way you have it done.

Yeah, I agree that Ivy is misunderstood. That was pretty much the point I was trying to make in my comment, just didnt think to word it that way lol. I also dont see Selina as a villian at all. Shes never really done anything nearly as bad as Batmans other Rogue's gallery members, at least to my knowledge. Harley, is yes, a villian. I still love her though, well Pre-Flashpoint Harley that is. Now that you say that, about her jumping from criminal to criminal, I totally see it. I didnt before but now I do XD

Nearly all the costumes from the relaunch have grown on me. It's funny how so many of them I started out despising but then ended up loving. Wonder Woman's is a prime example since I started out loathing it but now I love it more than anything she previously wore. It's too bad they didn't do a new look for Catwoman. She could really use it.

Catwoman isn't a saint and she's certainly committed a lot of crimes. She's been responsible for countless thefts and is even responsible for the death of Black Mask (and Stan, her former pimp, as well I believe). However, Catwoman is notable for taking a strong stance against terrorism and in her '90s solo series she frequently faced off against terrorists and villains because she disagreed with their actions. In her second solo series, Catwoman also became a champion for Gotham City's East End which she vowed to clean up. I'm not really sure how "villainous" any of that really is. Still, she started out as being promoted as a Batman villain so she'll likely never escape that title despite being firmly rooted in the anti-hero territory.

Yeah. All the new costumes Ive seen I really like. Wonder Womans is pretty awesome, IMO. I like it better then that pants outfit they had on the failed WW pilot. I really wish we couldve seen that though...And yes I agree Selina couldve used a new costume. Poor thing has been wearing that black bodysuit FOREVER.

Yeah, I knew about all the thefts, cause thats what she is known for, but I didnt know about those deaths. I like that fact that she did all that in her solo series'. Im sure you have them and I can read them for myself one day. Its sad that she'll always been seen as a villian or a love interest to Bruce by most. She's definitely more then that in my eyes.

The pilot got a pretty bad review. It would have been nice to have seen it though if only to see what it would have been like.

Selina needs to ditch that damn outfit already. It's been more than a decade at this point and that's long enough... comic book characters should evolve and change so should Selina. I want to see her in something else. I'm tired of seeing the same damn goggled outfit. You'll have to read her solo series though. I don't have EVERY issue of all of them but I have enough that you'd get a pretty good sense of what happens.

I don't think the actress they chose was too bad. I thought she looked the part considering what they were going for with the character. Obviously, I haven't seen the pilot so I can't speak to how well she executed the role. I am a little glad they decided not to pick it up though... I don't have too much trust in people who have adapted Wonder Woman. I end up feeling like I'm the only one who can do her justice. XD

I bet she is!! Batwoman didn't get a new costume either... but her costume is badass as is. Catwoman just keeps looking sluttier and sluttier.

I love how you you did the vines growing off her body. Looking at all you're old stuff, I can tell that you've grown as an artist and give more depth to your drawings not only with the outfits and designs but always with the poses you put them in. You bring out who the character is and what they look like.

Thank you! The vines got thrown in if only because I knew a lot of people wouldn't be familiar with this look of Ivy's and I wanted them to know that she has new capabilities in the DCnU.

I also thank you for the kind words concerning my art in general. I think I've grown a lot as an artist as well... I see a definite difference when I look at art I drew two or three years ago. I do try to bring out the essence of the characters when I draw them.